Presenting images in a conference system

• US 7,418,476 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pixion Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pixion Incorporated
• Inventors: Wells, Benjamin, Madams, Peter, Flower, John, Kaul, Clint, Salesky, Joseph, Janne, Edward Arthur Ho-Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Jean; Frantz B
• Application Number:
  US11/636,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083597A1
• Time in Patent Office: 627 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/227, 709/228, 379/202.01, 379/158, 715751-753, 715/500.1, 382/254, 382/276, 382/232, 370/260
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1415 with means for detecting differences between the image stored in the host and the images displayed on the displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system for allowing conference participants to share all or a portion of the display seen on their computer screens is disclosed. The conferees may be at sites removed from each other, or may view a recorded presentation or archived conference at different times. Conference participants are either “presenters” who can modify the display or “attendees” who cannot modify the display. A pointer icon, which can be labeled to identify the conferee, is displayed on the shared image area. Each conferee can modify the position of his or her own pointer, even when not presenting, so that every participant can see what each conferee is pointing to, should a conferee choose to point to an element of the display. These and other features apply to other data streams shared in the conference or in meetings where there is no shared-image data stream.

Claims

1. A method for presenting images in a conference system comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one region of a display image on a first computer, the selected region to be displayed on at least one second computer;

capturing an image within each selected region; and

transmitting data associated with the capture image to the at least one second computer for display by the at least one second computer, the data associated with the capture image including a time-stamp, and wherein the display of the transmitted data includes the selected at least one region on the first computer, and wherein the display of the transmitted data at the at least one second computer is synchronized with the first computer utilizing the time-stamp.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising transcoding data associated with the captured image from a first image data form to a second image data form.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one region is a subset of the display image, the subset of the display image configured for a private conversation between two or more participants in a conference.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising dividing the captured image into subregions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the selection occurs in response to a selection occurring on a screen display.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the selection occurs in response to a selection occurring in a memory-generated representation of a screen display.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection includes a plurality of regions of the display image.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in a buffer the data associated with the captured image.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a signal at the first computer after the at least one second computer receives data associated with the captured image.

21. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one region of the subset of the display image on the first computer, the selected region of the subset to be displayed in a private conversation with a participant at an at least one second computer;

capturing an image within the selected at least one region of the subset; and

transmitting data associated with the capture image to the participant at the at least one second computer for display in the private conversation by the at least one second computer, wherein the display of the transmitted data includes the selected at least one region of the subset on the first computer.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the transmitted data includes a real-time object stream.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a computing device to perform a method for presenting images in a conference system comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one region of a display image on a first computer, the selected region to be displayed on at least one second computer;

capturing an image within each selected region; and

transmitting data associated with the capture image to the at least one second computer for display by the at least one second computer, the data associated with the capture image including a time-stamp, and wherein the display of the transmitted data includes the selected at least one region on the first computer, and wherein the display of the transmitted data at the at least one second computer is synchronized with the first computer utilizing the time-stamp.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising transcoding data associated with the captured image from a first image data form to a second image data form.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising dividing the captured image into subregions.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein receiving the selection comprises receiving a selection of a plurality of regions of the display image.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of regions overlap.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising storing in a buffer the data associated with the captured image.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising receiving a signal at the first computer after the at least one second computer receives data associated with the captured image.

17. A system for presenting images in a video conference, comprising:

a conference server coupled to a network, wherein the conference server maintains synchronicity within the video conference and between conference participants utilizing at least a time-stamp;

a first participant computer coupled to the network, the first participant computer configured to;

receive a presenter selection of at least one region on a display of the first participant computer,

capture an image with the presenter selection, and

transmit data associated with the captured image within the presenter selection to the conference server;

a second participant computer coupled to the network, the second participant computer configured to;

receive the data associated with the captured image from the conference server, and

display the received data associated with the captured image, wherein the display of the received data includes the presenter selection of at least one region on the display of the first participant computer.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the data associated with the captured image within the presenter selection includes the time-stamp.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the data associated with the captured image within the presenter selection includes information related to position of a pointer in the presenter selection.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein display the received data associated with the captured image further includes the display of the position of the pointer and an associated icon.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the conference server is further configured to negotiate and establish capabilities of participants in the video conference.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the capabilities are selected from the group consisting of bit-depth, bandwidth of connection between the participants and the conference server, processor speed of the conference participants, and available memory at the conference participants.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the capabilities of the conference participants may be modified by the conference server during the video conference.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the modification occurs automatically.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the modification occurs in response to a participant demand.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the conference server is further configured to distribute conferencing tasks to conference participants following the conference server having negotiated and established participant capabilities.

29. The system of claim 17, wherein the conference server is further configured to route data through another conference server based on the demands or resources of the conference participants.

30. The system of claim 17, wherein the conference server is further configured to route data through another conference server based on characteristics of the network.

31. The system of claim 17, wherein the conference server is further configured to route data through another conference server based on analysis of data related to the time-stamp.